Graham Greene is making a good point about Temple’s suggestive imagery that the studios appear to be deliberately presenting. Four or so years before Wee Willy, she was appearing in these “kid” movie shorts where you had young children, usually wearing only a diaper, doing parodies of popular genre films; with 4 to 6 year old Shirley appearing as seductive showgirls and gangster molls. Which audiences at the time probably found cute.

Yes, the baby shorts are rather disturbing and in mind when I did this. I actually wanted to do more, such as put a very long line of portly middle-aged men as her costars, but was stymied by impatience and not having enough selection at the Internet Archives. I could find actors of girth like Eugene Pallette in some trailers, but they weren’t credited in those I found.

I have always found a certain commonality in Shirley Temple and Marllyn Monroe…. both big stars at Fox. It has something to do with being very aware of the camera… has anyone else ever noticed this or is it just me?

Yes, I remember Greene being outed in DAY FOR NIGHT but I also remember seeing a BBC TV Omnibus programme that may have involved the Orient Express in the early 7os where Greene spoke but refused to allow his image to be seen. I’m wondering if this was the same one that had recreations from his novels including James Bolam as :Pinkie from BRIGHTON ROCK?

I recall a magazine piece by Greene, describing how an imposter was turning up in society page photos hither and yon. The imposter didn’t especially resemble Greene, and didn’t seem to be playing any con. He was just talking his way into elite settings, and was often seen holding a drink (“Left to right: Socialite Cynthia Something, Major Whoosis, and author Graham Greene”). In retrospect, wondering if this was a half-satiric device to disown those images of himself.

In fact, impersonating celebrities for profit or mere attention used to be pretty common (Has it faded?).

The secret was to find somebody with a claim to fame but was hard to confirm or debunk. Self-styled Little Rascals and Munchkins once roamed the land, as well as spurious members of old rock groups. All had colorful anecdotes for local newspaper reporters. Here and there a more elegant fraud would identify himself as, say, Richard Avedon (obvious pickup potential). Tied for my favorite: An elderly pilot who claimed to fly one of the biplanes in “King Kong”, buzzing a guy in an ape suit on an Empire State model. An elderly guy who claimed he WAS the guy in the ape suit, and played Kong in most of the shots.

I gave up reading Greene when I realised he would smuggle something into every other books, no matter if it was an”entertainment” or more serious, that would stay with me and depress me whenever I thought of it. Forever. I liked what I read, but I could do without adding to my stockpile of mental misery.

The Kubrick impersonator was a pretty good one. No physical resemblance (a la Tichbourne Claimant) but a famous name who hadn’t been seen much lately. A useful nudge to Kubes — time you made another film, sleepyhead.